DJENIN. 
347 
a long harpoon, which he throws with great skill; uses like¬ 
wise a boarding-knife and patent forcing-pump. He never 
dies naturally, but is subject to diseases of the brain, from too 
great a flow of blood to the head. Wounds produced by this 
ferocious animal are unpleasant, but not fatal. Constant de¬ 
pletion, however, may destoy life ; hence, by repeated attacks, 
a man may be altogether dried up; in which case he becomes 
a dry subject. One should always, when he feels the harpoon 
thrown into him, seize hold of the flea by the hind-legs, tear 
him out by main force, and deposit him secretly upon his 
neighbor. I always did so, as nearly as practicable, upon the 
English Captain or the Southerner. Sometimes I dropped 
him into their ears, so that they might have odd dreams to 
tell when they waked up. 
We had fleas all through Syria; we were flayed by fleas 
from Beirut to Jerusalem. They are the living embodiment 
of the nights in Palestine, which are now the nearest approx¬ 
imation to the knights of Jerusalem. 
In the morning, after a hurried breakfast, I went to take 
another look at the town. The weather was wet and gloomy, 
and nothing could exceed the comfortless and melancholy as¬ 
pect of the whole place : the narrow streets, half-filled with 
ruins and piles of filth; dead carcasses sopping in green pools 
of mud ; the dark alleys reeking with a sickening stench ; the 
walls of the houses blackened with smoke, and tottering to 
ruin; a few half-naked wretches, scarce bearing the semblance 
of human creatures, wallowing about the doorways amid the 
foul abominations; stagnation, decay, ruin every where—the 
earth polluted, the air accursed, the very dogs sneaking into 
darkness, as if to hide their degradation. 
We were glad enough to take our leave of so unpleasant and 
inhospitable a place. It rained hard all the forenoon, and our 
ride was uncommonly dreary. 
